How do YOU remove 'injection-wax' from INSIDE of a wax-statue? - 26 photos

 How to make a wax statue 'lighter in weight, but not so costly'? There is only one technique and that is to use a specialized "3-tooth bur".

 This bur literally 'removes' the wax inside the separated ligaments where the wax isn't needed.                      

                     This Level of Difficulty is 8.5 out of 10!

 This is a close-up of the wax-carving 3-tooth bur. As it only cuts on wax, the teeth hardly ever wear out. If I need to dig deeper into a wax form, all I will do is to lengthen the bur from the chuck.

    Don't hold any delicate wax-form too long, or it will get soft from the warmth of your fingers. Thankfully with this statue, we won't have this problem.

 Keep all of the remaining wax residue out of your wax-cleaning areas. As this will cover-up what you are doing.

 Please don't speed up the revolutions of the rotating-bur. Take care while doing the carving, or your '3-toothed bur' will pierce the wax pattern. Then a 'repair process' is needed, this will be shown further below.

 This photo shows how delicate the wax-removing can get. BE CAREFUL.

 Examine each 'wax clearing section', Just don't go at it without measuring the wax length needed.

Leave enough thickness for your metal casting. "What remains, will be metal."

  Remove all residue from the "3-tooth bur", removing of wax must be seen with 'no guessing'.

  For being on the safe side, keep the walls of your wax-form thin, but not too thin. REMEMBER THAT THERE IS A 6% REDUCTION between the wax => metal.

                                           Repairing the wax-holes.

  To reach into longer sections or areas, you can extend the cutting bur, as shown below.

 If you keep your long section at a proper angle, you won't pierce the wall. This is what happened here.

There will be times in removing your wax, you will be needing to 'fix' your holes. I really suggest that you use a softer wax than what you are currently working on. 

This wax melts at a lower temperature and as well the newer wax is of a different colour.

 "This operation is surgically delicate", lower your temperature of the wax pen. Keep your melting pen clean by just heating it up and keeping the pen-tip clean where you are working.

Even if  the colours of the 'repaired wax' is of a different colour, that is of no concern.

  Here are both 'arms' of the statue, one is drilled, but the thickness of the wall is still too thick for being 'lighter in metal weight'. More wax removal is required, as the weight is still too heavy.

 

  

 The wall of the arm on the left is the 'desired thickness'. The center 'arm' needs to be contoured more evenly. Of course the 'arm' on the right is untouched.

These are the thin wax-sprues that can be bought in any tool-supplier. I use them for making 'gates' and fixing problems in my wax-carvings.

                                      Weighing your waxes!

 

  This particular arm weighs 3.3 grams and this is before any removing of any wax.

After much 'careful' wax-removing, this arm now weighs 2.5 grams. Nice weight for casting!

The "face" wax-weight is a very heavy 5.5 grams. This was too heavy for metal casting and above all, so very costly.

Now compare the weight shown in the 'hollowed out' head, it's now at 3.0 grams.

 The main torso of this statue weighs (a ridiculous) 25.8 grams. But how did I solve this major weight-problem?

 My solution was easy, but well worth my efforts & labours.

First of all, I split the torso in halves, then easily carved out the wax. This weight went from 25.8 grams down to 8.6 grams for a reduction of 17.2 grams. 

I'd call this a big "WOW".

 This 'leg of the statue' needs much careful separating, as I just can't manage to use any '3-tooth' bur in it's present condition.

 I can easily remove as much of the wax as needed. Then afterwards re-joining the hollowed out pieces of the leg again.

 Even I had a 'challenging time' doing the carving and repairing of the wax. But suffice to say, that through all of these photos, I enjoyed explaining all of the subtle nuances to you wherever you live. "gerrylewy18@gmail.com"

How would you 'cost & weigh' a large wax sculpture?

  In my previous essay, I displayed my 8-inch mold from our family heirloom "circa, 1934" statue.

 As it was too large to cast & to clean being in one piece, I disassembled it into smaller pieces. I'm going to show how it can be cost effective & will be explaining this process further in this, my 385th blog-essay.

 As many of these wax-pieces are solid, I must 'separate & carve' them to avoid the expensive casting costs.

 For now, I will prepare another wax statue just for this process. As these pieces have been sitting in various containers for many years and some pieces got lost or destroyed. 

 I will ask my caster to inject my 8-inch mold as I need to locate the missing parts of the 'feet and both arms'.

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 The complete wax statue (as shown) weighs 106.60 grams. YOU MUST ADD 10% FOR THE (casting) 'BUTTON'. When you are weighing your wax "Piece of Art" always INCLUDE for ALL SPRUES, (these will be removed after casting).

 I used a cost calculating schedule just for this essay from "DENTRITICS.COM" to estimate the costs mainly in .925 silver.

 The metal casting weight is calculated at 1,104.38 grams (710.21 DWT) the cost in USF's is $90.81 plus the (company of your choice) casting fees.

 

 Silver (.925) alloy is at $28.64 an ounce dated on April 20th, 2024. The gold price fluctuates by the hour, silver is much stable. 

 In our Canadian (37.53% added) exchange currency, these costs will be $124.89.

In "Euro" currency, the charges are 84.24.

In "GBP" (English) currency, the charges are 73.40.

Once that I have carved & reduced the many wax weights, these costs will be greatly reduced. I will again estimate the final wax & casting weights, but these numbers shown are only a testament to the rigours of calculating these costs.

 There are so many variables to contend with, I had to make sure that this essay is accurate as possible.

 

  At a later date, I will attempt to display how the wax-carving is actually processed.